Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, has stated multiple times that their opposition has “stepped into every trap we’ve laid.” Daniels’ latest lawsuit against President Donald Trump — this time alleging defamation — would appear to be Exhibit, oh, what are we on now, G or H, perhaps?

Since filing his first lawsuit against Trump and Trump's longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen in early March, Avenatti has been taunting them in the press, on cable news shows and via Twitter, baiting them to say and do things that hurt their case in regard to the hush agreement that won't shut up. In March, Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, sued Trump and Cohen, alleging that the nondisclosure agreement (NDA) — which she has said was intended to keep her quiet about a consensual, extramarital sexual liaison with Trump — is invalid because Trump never signed it.

Side note: Has it really only been two months? Feels more like 84 years, no?

Trump and Cohen are probably asking the same questions as the legal tempest surrounding the NDA and a $130,000 payment to Daniels continues to swirl. Until recently, Trump had spoken on the Daniels matter only to deny knowledge of the agreement and payment as well as the existence of an affair, referring all questions to Cohen.

The Sketch, the Tweet and the Lawsuit

But then on April 17, Avenatti released a sketch of the man who Daniels claims threatened her. During an interview on 60 Minutes, Daniels stated the encounter happened in 2011, just after she had sold her story regarding the alleged affair to a magazine — a story that was never published.

"'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,'" the complaint alleges the man said. "The man then leaned around and looked at Ms. Clifford's infant daughter and said: 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.'"

After the release of the sketch of the man, whom Daniels said she would easily recognize if she saw again, Trump broke his uncharacteristic silence and tweeted: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

The suit claims that Trump made his tweet “either knowing it was false, had serious doubts about the truth of his statement, or made the statement with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity.”

Can Daniels Win?

Generally, a plaintiff in a defamation case must show that the defendant made a false and defamatory statement about the plaintiff. New York is a “per se defamation” state, which means a plaintiff does not have to show any financial loss or injury where the defamatory statement was inherently harmful. Here, Avenatti claims Trump’s tweet was defamatory per se because it accused Daniels of committing a crime.

Ordinary defamation suits are often hard to prove, but they are incredibly challenging to win when public figures are involved because the plaintiff must also show that the defendant acted with actual malice.

Avenatti acknowledged on Anderson Cooper 360 that malice may be hard to show here, but he sets up a reasonable argument in the complaint: “It was apparent that Mr. Trump meant to convey that Ms. Clifford is a liar, someone who should not be trusted, that her claims about the threatening encounter are false, and that she was falsely accusing the individual depicted in the sketch of committing a crime, where no crime had been committed.”

In light of the Daniels’ other lawsuit against Trump, which seeks to invalidate the NDA — currently on a 90-day stay as the judge found a Cohen federal indictment "likely" — it’s not a far stretch to imagine that Trump has an ulterior motive to publicly call into question Daniels' credibility.

Daniels' defamation case will first have to survive a motion to dismiss from Trump, which is surely on its way. The president may argue that he was merely expressing an opinion, which is not considered defamatory under the law. Further, he could try to claim immunity as a president is, indeed, immune from a suit when acting within his role as the president. Avenatti anticipates this contention, though, when he notes in the complaint that the allegedly defamatory tweet came from Trump’s “personal Twitter account."

Notably, Trump is also fighting a defamation suit by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice who has accused Trump of sexual assault. Zervos has sued Trump based on his comments that essentially call her a liar. A New York state judge recently ruled against Trump's motion to dismiss the suit, which had been based on the theory that a sitting president is immune to suit in state court — a decision that likely informed Avenatti's choice of venue for Daniels' defamation case.

On Anderson Cooper 360, Avenatti insisted that Daniels' defamation lawsuit is not a “publicity stunt,” and make no mistake, it’s certainly more than the “warning shot” he fired with a tweeted photo of a DVD before Daniels’ 60 Minutes interview.

Yes, the filing also creates publicity — as any lawsuit involving the president would — but Avenatti summed up his motivation behind it on Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace: “The bottom line here is that if the president continues to make up statements and distribute them about my client, and if he continues to lie about my client, there’s going to be consequences for that, period.”

Will we see more allegedly derogatory and/or defamatory tweets about Daniels from Trump? Will Cohen "flip" on Trump, as Avenatti has repeatedly suggested he will? And if so, how would any of that affect the pending Daniels' lawsuits?

Butter brush up on my popcorn puns. I have a feeling I'm going to need them.